A primal desire that we each keep secretly hidden is to wander into the wild, to cast off social graces like a savage, and to let our beard and hair grow out to a haggard mane. Several weeks on the Himalayan trails gives plenty of time to go beyond stubbly and scruffy to bushy and barbarian. For a lot of slaves to office culture it’s a treat to play out dreams of being a free spirit and a “manly man” out of public scrutiny. Of course there are already hermit mountain man fantasy camps available closer to home, but breaking into the hiking lifestyle in the Khumbu with some untamed whiskers garners great credibility. Famous summit baggers are always photographed with prominent, unkempt beards, so it’s probably a hit to your image if you take pictures home where you’re cleanly shorn.

One of the joys for our trekking group was meeting all of the children along the trails. In each village there would be a small group of them together watching the hikers pass by. Sometimes they would give us a “namaste”, but usually they were very shy and would just keep to themselves. Seeing children sitting outside in the sunlight is actually a rare sight for us because kids here are either at school, in the living room watching television, or at the computer. An American youngster couldn’t stand to loiter outside for no purpose over an extended period of time. The younger members of our group (well, not to be a hypocrite, I include myself in this) went out of their minds with all of the long stretches without diversions. It’s not that the Sherpa children had made a lifestyle choice, there probably just wasn’t anything useful for them to do. They were enjoying their temporary relief from the kind of hard work their parents were doing. On occasion we saw children who were not much older (starting about 10 years old) who were hauling loads and starting their lifetime of hard work.

I grew up in the United States during a period of ongoing development in civil rights, notably the adjustment in society to value and regard women as equals, and now this seems like the natural order of things. It’s difficult for me to imagine seeing things differently, but in my visit to Nepal and the Khumbu region of the Sherpa people I got to know some families who interact in that way. In general the women in Nepal don’t enjoy the same legal status or the same social value as the men. From what I saw it’s not the worst social oppression in the world, but it’s hard to witness it in any degree. Among the Sherpa families a couple will hope to have a son to honor them and to give them acceptance in the community. They have the kind of attitude that they need to keep having children until they get a son. They probably wouldn’t just stop with 2 or 3 daughters without having a son.

Setting out on a trekking adventure in the Himalayas is not in the realm of a leisurely walk in the park. I know that’s obvious, but let’s put into perspective the effort and sacrifices required to undertake the experience. There’s a long list of opportunity costs against seeing the the world’s highest mountain peaks with your own eyes, and the time away from work and family and the money paid for travel are too expensive for many of us. Still the magnitude and challenge of hiking to see Annapurna or Mt. Everest is something that drives a persons passions and dreams for a lifetime. There are many people who casually daydream about pitting themselves against the trials of nature’s extremes and reaching planet earth’s ultimate elevation. Some take it seriously and keep a plan fresh on their lifetime “to-do” list, and they work to save up enough money and vacation time to take the excursion. Then there are some who are born to challenge the mountains and they center their lifestyle and livelihood on the pursuit of the greatest high adventure rush.